Are Home Births The New Trend Hollywood Trend?

Have your baby the Hollywood way! More American mothers are nixing the hospital for the home to deliver their newborns just like celebrities Gisele Bundchen and Demi Moore.

Mothers like Gisele Bundchen and former Dancing With The Stars contestant Ricki Lake brought their babies’ delivery back to the home front, and now more moms want to join the trend. A 29 percent rise of home births between 2004 and 2009 might be due to moms wanting “specifically desired surroundings, a so called Hollywood motivation,” reports the Daily Mail.

Gisele gave birth to her son at home in the bathtub in 2009, while Ricki publicly documented her home birth in her film Business of Being Born.

“When they see celebrities doing it, they think ‘Oh, this is a great idea,” Dr. Mary L Rosser, Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Women’s Health at Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx told HealthDay News.

Not everyone can go au natural, though. The American Pregnancy Association recommends homebirths only to mothers expecting a “healthy, low-risk pregnancy” and lists the risks of homebirth as high blood pressure, fetal distress, cord prolapse and/or hemorrhage.

If the attraction of giving birth like supermodel Cindy Crawford or Academy-Award winner Meryl Streep isn’t enough incentive, the price may be. “An average uncomplicated vaginal birth costs about 60% less in a home than in a hospital,” the American Pregnancy Association states.

Which do YOU prefer: Bringing your new baby right into your home surrounded by friends and family, or the safe and professional help of doctors and nurses (and those ever-helpful drugs to ease the pain)?